This invention relates, in general, to input/output processing of a computing environment, and in particular, to enabling/disabling adapters of the computing environment.
Today, computing environments have various configurations and use various types of input/output (I/O) devices. In order to use an I/O device, it is enabled, and then once its use is complete, it is disabled. The manner in which an I/O device is enabled/disabled is device-dependent.
In the z/Architecture® and its predecessors offered by International Business Machines Corporation, the enablement and disablement of I/O devices have traditionally been performed on a channel path, control unit and subchannel basis. The various functions of a Channel Subsystem Call instruction provide interfaces by which operating systems can manipulate the various I/O resources.
Other types of I/O devices, however, may be used that do not include channels and subchannels. For instance, peripheral component interconnect (PCI) adapters use attachment and communication paradigms that are different than that of traditional I/O devices.